Lath-machine



. instant.

`UNITED STES PATENT OFFICE.

ISAAC R. SHANK, OF BUFFALO, VIRGINIA.

LATE-MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 11,085, dated June 6, 1854.

T0 all 'whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, ISAAC R. SrL-mii, of Buifalo, Putnam county, Virginia, have invented new and useful Improvements in Lath-Machines; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference beinghad to the annexed drawings, making part of this specification.

My invention is for the purpose of converting boards or slabs into laths, and has especial reference to the mechanism by which the thickness of the lath is regulated and atthe same time its sepa-ration and discharge insured, so as to enable the operation to be performed both with certainty and speed. 1

The devices described in the patent granted to me on the twenty-first of June, 1853, for the gaging and liberation of the lath have been usefully employed; I now however, effect thesame objects more certainly and quickly and by a more simple and compact arrangementof mechanism than that heretofore employed by me. y y i In the annexed drawings Figure 1 is a vertical section at right angles to the plane of the knife, which is represented as about to enter the board. Fig. 2 represents the knife somewhat advanced through the board. Fig. 3 `shows the discharging action of the gage.

(a) is one of a pair of stanchions which give support to the rest of the machinery.

(b) is a bench or table, on which the board is laid to be worked up into laths.`

(c) is the knife, having a vertical motion given to it by an `eccentric (CZ) revolving within a yoke (e). The shaft of the eccentric carries a gear wheel (f) which meshes into another one of equal size, so that their revolutions are completedat the same Upon the shaft of this latter wheel, is the revolving gage and liberator `(71.).` This gage is composed of two cylindrical segments whose difference of diameter is about equal to lath.

the usual thickness of a The freeing or liberation of the lath as it is cut, which in my former invention was eiected by the vibration of the gage; is here accomplished by the lessening diameter of the gage at the notch (l). The effet of this depression in the gage is that as soon as the knife by entering the board has rm hold upon it the gage (descending more rapidly than the knife) ceases to offer any resistance to the parting or separation of the lath. This depression, I make uniform for about the semicircumference of the gage, where it terminates with another notch (2), the object of which is as follows: During rapid working of the machine, it occasionally occurs that a lath remains clinging by some of its fibers, either to the board or to the knife, so that the forward pressure or advance of the board in direction of the feed being opposed, the knife makes several ineffectual strokes, and destroys the lath before it can escape. Such a contingency is effectually prevented by notch (2), which is certain to catch the lingering lath, and force it downward before the knife returns to action.

The gage may be provided with any usual mode of adjustment, and will be set as occasion may require so as to present the perimeter of the larger segment at a distance from the knife edge, equal to the desired thickness of the lath.

I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- The revolving gage formed of two unequal cylindrical segments, in connection as described with a reciprocating knife, for the purpose of gaging and insuring the liberation and discharge of the lath.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto set my hand before two subscribing witnesses.

ISAAC R. SHANK.

IVitnesses:

GEO. H. KNIGHT, EDWARD H. KNIGHT. 

